


Kara vs. Earth Science

by confab_nocturni



Series: Warm ups [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 16:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11294517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confab_nocturni/pseuds/confab_nocturni
Summary: Some reasons Kara might not let the world know she's a science genius, too.





	Kara vs. Earth Science

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve seen a few posts on tumblr about the show forgetting that Kara is genius. I do think that sometimes the show swings too far in /kara smash/ direction sometimes, but I think there are some good reasons that Kara might choose not to express her science skills, too. Thus a metafic was born. (Actually, I wrote this a while ago but am just now getting around to typing it up in an attempt to break out of a writing slump.)

Kara designs a clean energy generator for her first science fair. It’s an adaptation of a Kryptonian design that uses perpetual motion of time crystals* to power a field coil. She feels a little bit guilty that its not something completely new, but the modifications to adapt the design to Earth materials and the local inertial frame felt like a good exercise. Anyway, Kara is proud of the work she did, but is a little worried that her project won’t be enough. So she shows Jerimiah and Eliza. They kinda freak out in the way they do when they a) don’t want to freak Kara out, too, but b) have now idea how they are supposed to handle whatever the current situation is. Usually it happens when Kara lifts something they consider too heavy or jumps too high, but Kara had purposely picked something she thought was unremarkable. She had just been frustrated with her math and science classes in school. The lessons were all so backward! Half the time the teacher used the most round about methods of calculation and the other times they were just plain wrong. It was like calculating fluid flux using only addition instead of surface integrals. You could probably do it, but dear gods, why? (on one math test Kara had been particularly frustrated at the instructor insisting they ‘show their work’ but then telling Kara her work was wrong even though the answer was correct and in 5 fewer steps than the ‘correct’ answer)

Then Kara sees Alex’s project. Alex cloned a geranium cutting and exposed the clones to different wavelengths of light (infrared, full spectrum, and UV) to study environmental effects on genetic expression. (Kara isn’t quite sure if it’s some kind of dig at her, but it kind of feels like it.) By Science Guild standards, it’s pretty elementary, remedial even. But, Alex is really proud of her work. She’s been working on it for two months and Eliza let her set up her own station at Eliza’s lab. They spent a weekend working together on the DNA profiling. Kara can see how much it means to Alex to be seen as a peer by her parents. She doesn’t want to diminish that for them. It would be so easy to show them, like the child she tutored on Krypton, how easy the process could be if they did it the right way. But the Danvers have done so much for her already. They’ve given her, a stranger, an alien, so much already and Kara can see that they prepared to continue giving in order to keep her safe and well. The Danvers are not children to be taught or corrected. 

So Kara pulls back, lets go of the career she had dreamed of in the Science Guild. It’s similar to what she does with her physical powers. She holds back, tamps them down. There are no lead lined glasses to help with this, but it does get easier with practice. Kara finds that painting, of all things, helps her manage. The focus required to translate what sees or remembers in to paint helps her step back from the experience. Like meditation, she can observe without drowning in the observation. It helps that none of the Danvers can draw much more than a stick figure. Kara can excel without making anyone else feel less good about their own skills. She doesn’t really understand why talent in the arts is seen as less dangerous than the sciences, but with decides not to question it too closely.

**Author's Note:**

> *[Time crystals are real](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal) and do have perpetual motion! (but probably can’t be used to generate free energy)


End file.
